The jewelry shone brightly as Ethan beheld it against the light flooding through the window. "This is a pretty one," he said. "It should look just right on Sandy's pretty neck."
He sighed as soon as he uttered those words. He was a mere janitor who couldn't afford such luxury for his beautiful wife. A feeling of sadness perched right on his shoulders weighing him down. For some reason, mentioning his wife brought more gloom than joy to him.
"I wish I could get this for her," he mused, and sighed once more.
As though his words had summoned her in, the door opened immediately and revealed his wife, Sandy coming. There was a brief flash of happiness on his face, but his eyes peered closely at her. There was a man behind her and he was holding her hand from behind.
She had a devilish grin on her olive colored face, framed by wavy hair at both sides. But she did not look at him. Rather she walked past as though he was as invisible as air.
"Sandy," he called out. She ignored his words like mere breeze blown out of a pipe.
Meanwhile, the man and her were inspecting a number of diamonds at the other end of the shop.
"Would you like this?" He asked, taking a number of pearls from one of the stands.
"How much is it?" Sandy asked.
"It's nothing. Just twenty-five thousand dollars. Don't worry about it's all yours from this very moment." The man spoke with bass that had the room vibrating.
"Oh, Matthew," Sandy sang with so much glee, hugging the man in the process. "You are simply the best."
"Hey!" Ethan roared, his hands were curled up into fists. "That's my wife you're holding that way. Show some respect!"
Finally, Sandy turned towards him with her eyes staring from his head down to the worn out shoes he wore, as if trying to access his worth by those.
"Can you please leave me alone, Ethan?" She reprimanded him. "Can't you see I'm with someone important? Or has poverty efficiently dulled your sense of sight. Either way, you should know better than this and go. I did not come here for you?"
"Nice one, my love." Matthew laughed underneath his breath, attracting menacing looks from Ethan.
"But can't you see what you're doing is wrong? You are my wife for god's sakes. How can't you see this?" Ethan asked, pushing his luck one more time.
"Wife?" Sandy scoffed, walking up to him and talking in what one might call a loud whisper so Matthew wouldn't hear much about what she was about to say. "Don't tell me you are still calling me that. Have I not shown you the divorce documents already? I am no longer your wife, Ethan. The sooner you sign those documents the better for you. Why can't you see that? In any case, whether you do or not, I will make sure to continue flirting with men, torturing you, till you sign those papers. Trust me. I am not bluffing."
Before Ethan could respond to her threats, Matthew, the man Sandy was with, stepped between them, grabbing Ethan by his arm. "Hey, you've heard the lady. Back off, stay away from her."
"Get your hands off me this instant," Ethan warned, veins flashing across his forehead as he stared strongly into the eyes of Matthew.
"And what are you going to do, little man?" Matthew nudged at the fact that he was taller than Ethan. "Let me get this into your hard skull before you start getting any funny ideas, I am an expert at martial arts, and I run an underground group that can make your life miserable if you choose to make the mistake of crossing me."
Ethan scoffed at this and was about to go on an offense when his boss came in. A petite red haired woman with very beautiful and delicate facial features.
"What's going on here?" She shrieked in a high pitched tone.
Before Ethan could explain anything, his estranged wife had already launched herself into the narrative.
"Nothing, miss Kelly," she said. "We just came here to shop for the beautiful diamonds you have in your shop and your janitor kept harassing us. That should not be fair to your shop right?"
"No," the boss said staring at Ethan. She knew that Sandy was was just trying to put Ethan in trouble. She had been watching everything from the office after all. "Ethan, get back to work."
"Yes, ma'am," Ethan said inspite of himself.
"Do you hear that?" Sandy mocked. "Go back to work."
There was a loud thud from the door immediately, and some men dressed in nothing but black clothes with masks came in, shocking everyone in the room.”
"If you know that you don't want to get hurt or killed, don't move," one of the masked men said menacingly.Sandy could not hold back her fears, she screamed immediately as she saw them and hid behind Matthew. Kelly was speechless. She did not know what to do. It was her shop and she believed that they were nothing but robbers, and judging from their weapons, they were all dangerous. Each one of them held one. Ranging from bats, to knives, and the one who had spoken, held a gun."Please, the shop is open, you can take anything you want but please don't hurt anyone." Kelly begged with her hands over her red hair, even about to kneel down in the process."Now, that is interesting," said one of the intruders, the one with the gun. "We do not want any of your fancy jewelry. What we want is of far more importance. What we want, is you." Ethan twitched from hearing that information. His body almost moved on his own but he stayed still. These people were still dangerous. A wrong move coul
Ethan was perplexed by the situation that he had landed himself. It felt as though she had said something he had totally misheard. He had to ask for more clarity."Are you talking to me?" He asked, unsure of the red haired woman's intentions "Yes, I am talking to you. There could be no one else I would be talking to here, except you," she said. Ethan was speechless. Sandy watched from a corner, still reeling from the slap she had sustained from Kelly. Even she could not believe her ears and eyes, let alone, Ethan.Ethan looked at her, she flipped her face away in a spiteful manner, although she was filled with jealousy at the time. He sure as hell was tired of the way his wife treated him, but leaving her, was a different story all together. One that he was not ready to write or embark on. He had a good relationship with her father ever since he saved the man years ago and in return, the man arranged for him to marry his only child. But as for Sandy and her mother, they couldn't be
"I can't believe we were thrown out like that," Sandy said in rage as she walked out of the jewelry shop with Matthew. "I am never going to come to this shop anymore. I swear by my name."Matthew did not say anything. Although he was angry as Sandy, he was more embarrassed than he was angry, and so kept his rage sealed within, his hands caressing his nose every now and then."And you," Sandy called out, referring to Matthew. "What was that about? You said you were an expert in martial arts and then beaten like a dog right in front of me who you are supposed to protect. Worse is, you even hid behind me. Meanwhile Ethan... that Ethan... You know what? Forget it." She was still overwhelmed with jealousy, and the fact that her now ex husband was now with a woman richer, and far more prettier than her made her heart almost explode in resentment. "I can't believe all of this is happening to me," she whispered to herself, away from the hearing of Matthew. "Why am I getting jealous over so
"What's all of this supposed to mean?" Ethan asked, clearly dumbfounded and surprised at what he was seeing from the documents. "Is it not clear enough?" Kelly asked in a soft tone that still came off as very intimidating. "Please don't tell me I made a wrong choice in choosing you." Her words sounded like a joke as much as they were serious."I mean it is clear, but why?" He asked, unable to hide the surprise glued to his face. Kelly sighed once more. "What you're seeing there, my dear future husband, is a contract. A marriage contract. And as you have read, you will be paid handsomely for it. About a hundred thousand dollars per month just so you fulfill your roll as husband in my life. Do you understand it now?" Ethan was speechless. What word would he have said to actually explain what he felt. It seemed far better to keep a mouth shut so it doesn't say anything that was not quite able to capture the moment."As expected," she continued speaking. "I knew you'd be speechless. I
What was he supposed to do with that information? He felt as though he had gone to the kind of heaven some men dream of, but instead it was ruled by a she-devil, not angels."I'll see what I can do with that," he forced himself to say, lacking in his mouth anything that wouldn't come out forced or weird. She shook her head and he left soon.On the way out of the office he saw an alert on his phone. He had been sent money by her. Immediately he also received a text from her. "You must have seen the money I sent," the text read. "That is for clothes. I think you don't have any good clothes to wear, and that is such a shame, because I will not let you go dressing around me like a janitor. You need to be presentable because I will be taking you with me to go see my parents."He put the phone in his pockets after reading the text. He pinched himself on the arm, probably to ascertain that the entire day was not a mere dream that he would wake up from soon enough. It was not a dream as he
"Luke?" Ethan mouthed in surprise at the person he had just accidentally bumped shoulders with. A tall man with dark flowing hair."Well, look at who we have here?" The stranger Ethan referred to as Luke said, standing just across to him with a smile. "I thought I'd never find you, man."They both hugged each other, saying as one, "Come here, brother." "So what are you doing here?" Ethan asked. "I did not know that I would find any one from the Ancient Order here at any case. But look at you. What brings you here, my brother?""You," Luke said concisely. "We've been looking all over for you. At a point we even thought that you were dead. What have you been doing here?""Well, you know I've been living here, doing really simple jobs and trying to scrape by for myself a decent living." As Ethan said this, he quickly remembered the job he had now as a contract marriage and then shuddered a bit, wondering if such a job could be called anything decent."Something decent huh?” Luke said,
After Ethan was done talking, there was a brief moment of silence that hung over the car. None of them knew what to say afterwards. It was almost like someone had sealed their mouths off with tapes."So about the proposition from the Order, are you going to take it or not?" Luke asked, breaking the once sacred silence. Ethan let out a breath of surrender. "I don't know, Luke. I don't think I can take it. It seems so much like a grand thing to do. Way grander than anything I can undertake.”"Really? Why?" "Like I said, replacing Grandmaster Humber of the Order, is not something I think a person like me can undertake."Luke furrowed his dark eye brows. "That is exactly what I don't understand. You're the Ethan. The one Grandmaster put his faith most in, how can anything be bigger than you who was chosen by him? Grandmaster Humber doesn't make mistakes of this sort. This much I know of him. And he trained you for this day.”Ethan was quiet for a while. "Besides what exactly is in this
The door opened to a room painted all white, and Sandy came in. She had a look on her face that made it known to everyone in the room that something had recently gone down but the look itself was neither happy nor sad.Her mother was sitting on a chair close to a bed. A doctor stood over the bed, and on the bed was a middle aged man, asleep."Hey mother, how is father doing?" She asked, walking closer to them."Well, the doctor can tell you," the mother said. Her face had a tired expression."Oh," the doctor began, almost nervously. "He's getting better. We are doing our best to stabilise him and his situation. You know the ailment is incurable.”"Please, do all you can," Sandy said, looking at the doctor with pitiful eyes. "Ehm, doctor. Can I speak to my mom privately please?”"Oh, sure can do. I was about attending to something else either way." The doctor left in a few minutes. "So, mother, guess what?" Asked Sandy, a bit enthusiastically once the doctor left the room."You know t